Project Management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.
#31405
Benchmarking: Ugly Truths and Unpredictable Outcomes
A walk through a benchmarking project, sharing some of the behind-the-scenes stories of benchmarking gone right, and gone wrong. So, here they are, complete with tales of terror, moments of madness and even some back-room horse-trading.
Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (2000). Articles>Management>Communication>Assessment
#26820
Betriebswirtschaftliche Lüsungen zur Kostensenkung Technischer Dokumentation 
Die meisten TD-Verantwortlichen besitzen einen technischen Hintergrund. Daher verwundert es nicht, dass sie Lösungen für Kostenprobleme ebenfalls in der Technik suchen: Datenbanken, Content Management oder Translation Memory. Doch die Investitionskosten sind hoch. Und oft dauert es Jahre, bis sich entsprechende Systeme amortisieren – wenn überhaupt. Ein Betriebswirtschaftler würde das Problem anders lösen: ohne Technik und ohne Investition, durch gezieltes Setzen von Prioritäten und mit optimierten Prozessen. Bewährte Ansätze aus der Betriebswirtschaft gibt es viele, denn andere Unternehmensbereiche leiden unter genau denselben Kostenproblemen. Dieser Beitrag zeigt die wichtigsten Methoden und gibt Beispiele für deren Anwendung in der Technischen Dokumentation.
Achtelig, Marc. indoition engineering (2006). (German) Articles>Management>Project Management>Workflow
#19155
A Better Approach: Requirements-Focused CMS Selection
Your organisation is unique, and as such, has a unique set of content management system (CMS) requirements. There is also no single 'perfect for everyone' content management system. Each product has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, and distinctive design principles. Unfortunately, the selection process followed by many organisations doesn't recognise this, leading to the purchase of a CMS which does not match business needs. Selecting a CMS does not have to be a lottery. By following a requirements-focused methodology, instead of a features-driven approach, the right CMS can be identified, and the business risks minimised.
Robertson, James. Step Two (2003). Design>Content Management>Software
#28933
Better Content Management through Information Architecture
Content Management Systems promise so much: content is easier to publish, easier to update, and easier to find and use. Lots of promises, but do CMSs really deliver? Masood Nasser examines why Content Management Systems often fail and shows how Information Architecture can come to the rescue.
Nasser, Masood. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Content Strategy
#13914
Beyond Foucault: Toward a User-Centered Approach to Sexual Harassment Policy 
Our current national policy regarding sexual harassment, expressed through legal, economic, and popular discourses, exemplifies the Foucauldian paradigm in its attempt to regulate sexuality through seemingly authorless texts. Arguing that regulation through such discursive technologies need not lead to the effects of domination that Foucault recognized, I propose a user-centered approach to policy drafting that values the knowledge of workers as users and makers of workplace policy.
Ranney, Frances J. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Careers>Management>Policies and Procedures>Sexual Harassment
#31682
Beyond Power and Resistance: New Approaches to Organizational Politics
In this introduction to the special issue, the editors question the still-prevalent dichotomy of power and resistance when studying organizational politics. They begin by tracing the evolution of power and resistance in critical scholarship. Then, they propose that because of changing workplace dynamics, power and resistance are increasingly intertwined. More nuanced concepts are required to describe this. Finally, they argue that power and resistance should be considered as a singular dynamic called struggle.
Fleming, Peter and André Spicer. Management Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Management>Organizational Communication>Business Communication
#31303
Beyond Return on Investment: Managing Communication Systems as Business Assets
As communicators, we are increasingly under the gun to demonstrate the return on investment for our work. But using ROI formulas that attempt to pin down hard financial gains may actually reduce our potential credibility and influence. There's a new language and strategy for communicators that can help us move from being messengers to managers of corporate assets.
Gayeski, Diane. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Careers>Management>Financial>ROI
#28760
Beyond the Basics: Project Management Essentials for Technical Communicators
Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to a broad range of activities in order to meet the requirements of a particular project.
Currie, Cynthia C. STC Proceedings (2007). Presentations>Project Management
#13552
Beyond the Buzzword: Single Sourcing
Single sourcing, which has been a buzzword in technical communication for several years, is now emerging as a practical, efficient, and cost-effective method for creating multiple deliverables. You might want to consider single sourcing if you have some documentation projects that repeat, if not every one of your projects is a one-off, if you reuse some of your content, and if your budget planning includes more than just the very next project.
Brierley, Sean. Intercom (2002). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing
#21727
Big Architect, Little Architect
First came the primordial soup. Thousands of relatively simple single-celled web sites appeared on the scene, and each one was quickly claimed by a multi-functional organism called a "webmaster." A symbiotic relationship quickly became apparent. Webmaster fed web site. Web site got bigger and more important. So did the role of the webmaster. Life was good. Then, bad things started to happen. The size and complexity and importance of the web sites began to spiral out of control. Mutations started cropping up. Strange new organisms with names like interaction designer, usability engineer, customer experience analyst, and information architect began competing with the webmaster and each other for responsibilities and rewards. Equilibrium had been punctuated and we entered the current era of rapid speciation and specialization.
Morville, Peter. Argus Center (2000). Articles>Web Design>Interaction Design>Project Management
#21577
Bilingual Team Writing: Planning a Project
A two-person bilingual writing team enabled a software application development group to produce on-line documentation and a user guide simultaneously in two languages. Team writing in an international environment requires detailed planning, constant monitoring, and continuous communication in order to succeed.
MacKay, Brenda. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Project Management>Localization>Collaboration
#29742
Blog 101: An Overview of Weblog Technologies
A weblog or 'blog' is a Web site with content consisting of a series of discrete postings added sequentially and presented in reverse chronological order. Historically used for personal Web sites, blogs in fact represent a form of lightweight content management that can be adapted to virtually any topic, including technical communication. The recent explosion of blogs is in part a result of the availability of publishing tools that simplify their creation. These tools vary significantly in capability, setup, and ease of use, and each offers advantages and disadvantages.
Berry, Robert R. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Blogging
#27131
Blogs and One-Step CMSes are the Future of Web 2.0
Last year before I discovered Drupal and a host of other Content management systems I was building websites from scratch. I spent hours in PHP and Active Server Pages coding and designing. I was quite happy doing so. But then I came upon a flaw in the business plan of the company where I worked. It seemed we were doing the same thing over and over again only with slight differences in the end result. These differences were the reason I was busy all the time but could never catch up to the work load. What we needed was a finished product that allowed us to produce addons to satisfy the individual needs of each client.
Hiveminds (2006). Articles>Content Management>Software
#25481
Blogs and Technical Communication
Blogs are a simple, yet powerful tool and their popularity is rapidly growing. How are blogs affecting the community and technical communication?
Cottrell, Christina. Michigan State University (2003). Articles>Content Management>TC>Blogging
#25456
Content Management is starting to wrestle with what Clayton Christensen calls The Innovator's Dilemma: the inability of successful companies to adapt to a new, disruptive technology.
Hiler, John. Web Crimson (2002). Articles>Content Management>Technology>Blogging
#22002
Body Count: Why Moving to India Won't Really Help IT
There was a story in the news a couple weeks ago about how IBM was planning to move thousands -- perhaps tens of thousands -- of technical positions to India. This isn't just IBM, though. Nearly every big company that is in the IT outsourcing or software development business is doing or getting ready to do the same thing. They call this 'offshoring,' and its goal is to save a lot of money for the companies involved because India is a very cheap place to do business. And it will accomplish that objective for awhile. In the long run, though, IT is going to have the same problems in India that it has here. The only real result of all this job-shifting will be tens of thousands of older engineers in the U.S. who will find themselves working at Home Depot. You see, 'offshoring' is another word for age discrimination.
Cringely, Robert X. PBS (2003). Careers>Management>Outsourcing>Offshoring
#22763
Tout sur les CMS. Tous les jours. Toutes les infos.
Belin, Philippe. Boomtchak (2003). (French) Resources>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Blogs
#20283
This panel explores what corporate leaders in the Technical Communications field consider the hottest topics in the industry today.
Conklin, John James, Judith L. 'Judy' Glick-Smith, George Hayhoe, Thomas B. Hoyt and Deborah Rosenquist. STC Proceedings (1998). Careers>TC>Knowledge Management>Localization
#25529
Breaking out of the Cubicle: How a Small, Swiss Company Got its Groove On
In the mid-1990s, Makiko Itoh and her partner left New York's cubicle land for a web shop of their own in the suburbs of Zurich. Learn from her tips on running your own web agency.
Itoh, Makiko. List Apart, A (2001). Careers>Management>Web Design
#26754
SIN stands for Shy, Inactive, or New. I admit that it wasn't my original idea--I appropriated the name and concept from another organization.
Miller, Elisa K. Tieline (2006). Articles>Collaboration>Management
#14385
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Decentralizing a Doc Group
Re-engineering — a word that strikes fear into the hearts of middle-management. Our company was hit by reengineering fever in 1995–6, and word came down that we were to break up our comfortable little documentation group and distribute the writers among product development teams. We did it, and we did it right. In this paper, we · Review the thinking and planning that went into the conversion of a 30-person, centralized, corporatewide documentation group into a decentralized, loosely affiliated community of technical writers. · Describe the implementation of our plans and some of the pitfalls we encountered and overcame. · Share an evaluation of the success of the reorganization, and some tips that we learned along the way.
Kove, Jennifer and David Drexler. STC Proceedings (1998). Presentations>Management>Collaboration
#27254
Though the term 'agile' isn't often ascribed to the ways of software configuration management, Steve Berczuk offers some ways in which applying the principles of agile SCM can help teams work more effectively.
Berczuk, Steve. StickyMinds (2006). Careers>Project Management>Agile
#23944
Bridging the Back-Office/Front-Office Gap
With 75% of your organization's information contained in unstructured formats, can you transform it into 'usable content?' The problem that e-business exposes most often is inadequate integration.
Gross, Mitchell. KMworld (2001). Articles>Knowledge Management>Content Management
#23511
Bridging the Gap Between Creative and Technical Types
Does a gap between those considered creative types and those considered technical types really exist, or is it just a perception we've fostered?
Torok, Karen. Hanson (2001). Design>Project Management>Collaboration
#13787
